Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128178
Alpine Adventure Touring (LeftI Thl. Is the view from our Hotel In Wolke_In, ....,. This Is a great ptaceto ....... bae for touring the DolomIte•. (Below) Our tour guide Marlo _ds u.over .nother one of the tight Alpine ~NIce guardrallal out, was not only the longest day, but the most adventurous as well but I'll get to that in a minute. We headed out on the highway in the morning and then started up Passo Mendola just above Bolzano, Italy. The road was packed with motorcycles, including a guy on a Gold Wing, who was flying - I don't think any of us had ever seen a full-dresser move that and not coming down, because I was much happier with these frequent encounters with the rocks than I would have been with the two-by-four guardrails (when there were any) on the other side protecting motorists from their death. Really hairyl Probably one of the craziest roads I've ever ridden on - can you say goat path? We then headed toward the highest pass in Italy, the Passo Oi Stelvio (9098 feet). This is probably the most famous pass in the Alps, and once I was riding it, I understood why. The pass is comprised of almost 100 hairpin turns, and the hairpins on this pass - like all of the other passes in the Alps - are tight! We were talking first gear every time, and on the uphill rights I was practically fanning the clutch like a 125cc motocrosser to keep the engine from dying. What a blastl Once we reached the summit, it was obvious that the road was a huge bike hangout. Everything there catered to motorcyclists. There were (Above) Clau. the chef is also Clau. the tour guide, and speaks something like seven I.nguages. "-elt ...... fast before. We then headed through some beautiful valleys and towns, and up over the Tonale pass before we stopped for lunch at a roadside cafe. We ate upstairs among the locals on their long Saturday lunch, while a group of legit-appearing bikers feasted in the bar downstairs looking straight out of The Road Warrior, including their beat up, trashy looking choppers out front. After lunch, we headed up the Passo Oi Gavia. It was raining a bit and was really foggy. We were warned that the road was tight and was only a single Jane in many parts, but this was crazy. "You call this one lane?" I thought, as I was pinned against a rock wall by a car that jumped out of the fog. It forced me to come to a complete stop, with my saddle bag literally pressed against the rocks on my right. As it turns out, I'm glad we were ascending the pass 18 OCTOBER 30, 2002· eye • e a lot of bikes there, but nothing compared to what it must be like in the middle of summer. I thought the journey up the pass was fun, but the decent was even better - hairpin after hairpin after hairpin. The cool thing is that you never get sick of them - I mean, how could you? Our pass crossings were far from over for the day, and we continued on to and over the Ofenpass. We then cut straight through a mountain in its nearly five-kilometer-long tunnel. After the tunnel, it started to rain really hard and was quickly getting dark, which made our final pass of the day - the Passo del Bernina - all the more interesting. After a while, you just decide to trust the traction and forget about the rain and just deal with the hairpins, which are interesting in the dark of night. We ended up in the town of Pontresina, just outside of the famous ski resort